Aegis of the Hive

by law abiding pony

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Changelings, Original Character
Length: 7125

With a period of tense peace between the hives, one particular pyromantic drone observes her queens attempt to strengthen their hive's position.

A few months after the events of Queen Twilight Sparkle's reveal that she and her hive can produce love, the changeling hives find themselves in an arms race. As Aegis Altair watches over her queens haggling with the minotaur emperor, she finds something that just might give Phoenix's Roost the edge it needs to come out on top.

This is a short interlude before hive book 3.

Published 2014-10-17 04:30:09 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-17 04:30:09 UTC

Short Story

Ahh, guard duty. I could have been saddled with worse positions, but with the Deception flying over friendly airspace and mother communing with the hive mind, it can get rather dull. At least the bridge allowed a great view of everything below. An ecstatic warble over the hive mind told everypony onboard that Aunty was down in her chambers going about her queenly duties with a consort. An act that was little more than a blip on everypony’s routine.

Gah! Just thinking of eggs makes me want to hurry up and get rebirthed already!

I shook my head to try and focus on the present, namingly the center of my world, our Queen-Mother. For the moment, she’s meditating on her throne beside me, filling our hearts and minds with drive and determination to empower the hive. That’s one thing I’m going to miss when I’m a royal. Momma and Aunty’s Link Meditations make me feel like I can take the jungle hives by storm, yet they say their meditation doesn’t affect each other.

Sadly though… there’s little chance I can act on that empowerment when twiddling my hooves guarding her. The only thing I get out of Momma’s meditation is less of a chance to fall asleep on the job. Since there are only changelings onboard, and the thought of any of my siblings bringing harm to either Queen-Mother is a notion only outsiders think is possible. Makes me wonder how other races can stand having non-family guard their leaders. Ah well, my job’s still important regardless.

Anyway, watching the bridge crew go about their own duties is mildly interesting. Watching them control this marvelous ship is a thing of beauty. Speaking of beauty, Captain Rourke’s plot looks damn good today. After that roller coaster we had last week, I bet she wants round two. I just might take her up on it. Her love tastes like a mix between strawberries and bananas of all things. I love strawberries.

I manage to drag my eyes from Captain Eye Candy to look at Ferrum, and then follow his pointed hoof. I could feel the Deception starting its descent as it pierced through the thin cloud layer. The city that spread out before us was decent looking enough. Plenty of buildings, if on the short side, but considering the city was built on a river delta, I can see why they’d want to keep everything below three stories. Easier to rebuild and what not.

Bloody hell I can’t stand rural areas, and by the looks of all that open land between the city blocks, this is just going to be such a drag. I take a deep breath of air. The coy scent of wood, steel, steam, and oil sends a thrill up my spine. I don’t care if Granny engineered Momma, and us non altered drones by extension, to love technology. But I sorta wish more races out there shared that love. Or any other races for that matter.

Ferrum interrupted my survey of the city below.

I yawn at the early morning sun and idly buzz my wings to keep the blood flowing. I sneak a peek at mom, but she still hasn’t broken her meditation yet. I can’t help but to add a little flourish at rubbing it in, it just feels so good.

He shrugged at me with an uncaring look. I added after a few minutes of silence. The thought of a roaring crowd singing my accolades made me giggle madly for a bit. I grinned at the prospect of providing such a boon to the hive. It might not be such a bad idea to offer the idea to Mother after all.

I felt my ears fold against my skull as Ferrum’s comment burst my oh so sweet bubble. He looked at me as if I’m crazy. It’s not my fault he can’t understand my genius.

He just sorta shook his head about the time Momma was waking up.

I only half heard him as I freaked at Momma stirring, and rushed to make sure my ‘princess-to-be’ silver necklace was straight and shiny before she looked at me. “Good, we’re almost there,” she gazed towards the windows with a slight eager smile before looking my way. “I trust you’ll put that diplomatic training to good use down there.”

That’s one thing I can’t say has been among my favorite parts of my training regimen. “I’ll behave, my queen.” I barely won momma’s favor for the rebirth, and I think that showed on my face because she gently caressed me over the link. I couldn’t help but give a broad smile as my heart went aflutter from the intoxicating grape flavor of her love.

“You’ll do fine, Aegis. You know I wouldn’t have selected you to be my heir if I had any doubt you were the best choice.” At least of those of us drones who actually wanted to be a princess.

Even so, I couldn’t help but to brighten at Mom’s reassurances and I snuck in a brief nuzzle on her foreleg. She tittered as she used that same foreleg to raise my head up so she could give me her signature motherly kiss on my forehead. If I could have, I would give up my bid for a royal rebirth to be able to bask in mother’s love for a full day.

Sadly, Momma-Twilight had to give way to Queen-Twilight all too quickly, and she leaned back to sit properly on her throne to talk business. “Minotaurs are a very aggressive people, you won’t have to fake any sort of politeness like you would back in Equestria.”

“Oh, right, of course.” I did my best to try and hide the fact that I totally forgot to read about minotaur diplomacy. Momma looked like she sniffed me out, but turned towards Rourke before saying anything else. Great, so she’s going to use my ignorance as a test/lesson. Joy.

Ferrum’s annoying laughter over the Link was painfully obvious before his voice was.

The ship rattled from the welcoming salvo thundered from our deck guns. The shells splashed somewhere out at sea. It was a comforting thought knowing that it would be a temporary memory loss. Even so, I don't know if I could go through with it if the memory loss was permanent... unless Momma asked it of me of course.

I barely caught Ferrum rolling his eyes at me before gazing back at the city that was now dominating our view.

I didn’t bother responding. I’ve tried to explain why I want this so damned bad, but nopony understands, except for Mom and Aunty. Every time I see either one of them I can just feel how happy they are. They’re the core of our hive. The center of both my, and every single one of my siblings’ world and reason to live. Maybe my brothers and sisters are truly quite happy with leaving things as they are. But I’m not.

I don’t know why I’m different. Why I want to be queen so badly. Maybe I want to be the center of a hive, or it could be that I want to feel the love of thousands of children. Maybe it’s a dozen different smaller desires. All I know, is that I want that life more than anything… except for a day with Mother-Twilight.

Crete is a very strange place, and I can’t quite put my hoof on why. The houses and shops look well enough. The docks over the water where our shuttle set down were fairly decent. The architecture is all fine and dandy, and on par with Ponyville as far as I can tell. Looking at it all, the hustle and bustle from on top of Mom and Aunty’s carriage, I couldn’t help but feel like the place was missing something, yet I couldn’t tell what. But I can tell this much straight up. Holy piss does this place reek. I thought my nose hairs were going to melt off.

I have to pinch my nose and try to distract myself with the rest of the city itself as we make our way to the palace. The skies were practically empty save for a few white puffy clouds, there was no sound of industry except for the single family blacksmiths we rode past. Maybe it’s just the empty skies. No drones, pegasi, or cloud homes make it look so unused.

The palace though, woo wee! I grabbed my spyglass to see a maze of at least thirty gleaming steel spires that stretched up to the skies, with the tallest one reaching at least twenty five stories tall. All of it was interconnected with exterior stairs crawling up the sides and covered brick bridges. I still can’t get over the fact that the whole building is made of metal. I thought only we could do that.

Armored minotaurs practically blanketed the place with archers and ballistae bristling everywhere as if they were expecting us to attack, or it could have been a show of strength out of respect.

I hope it’s the latter.

Rich tapestries hung down all over the different spires, boasting a stylized ivory bull head with a claymore angled behind it. The icon was set on top of a beautiful navy blue background. I gotta say, for a species who don’t have telekinesis, these guys make do far better than I would have thought.

Our carriage was rocked by something on the street. I turned my eyes down to find it just some harmless bricks. We may have been here as guests, but you never know who might have an grudge against our kind. Plus it’s a really great excuse to avoid being stuffed in a cramped carriage when there were so many sights to see.

I spotted several minotaur warehouse workers lugging large stone blocks and stacks of bricks on their shoulders. The fact that they were carrying stones larger than my head was impressive. Not to mention that they were doing it on two legs, which is kinda freaky if you think about it. Sure a pony or ling can balance on two legs for a little bit, but carrying anything like that is out of the question. Even we would need carts to carry that much for any length of time. I wondered how these guys would fare in combat later.

We reached the entrance to the palace quickly enough. There was surprisingly not a single barricade or guard to be seen between the city and the front doors of the castle. That is, unless you forgot to count the two brick walls of muscle that cleverly disguised themselves as minotaurs at the massive double doors to the palace proper. Fortunately, the stench of the city didn’t quite reach the palace courtyard so I finally released my snout.

Two bulls waited for us as our carriage circles around a massive warhammer wielding statue of the current ruler. The first minotaur, and taller of the pair, was obviously the emperor, matching his statue’s sheer presence. The crown, flowing gold flaked cape, and two meter tall warhammer erased any doubt that he was the big cheese around here. But damn that weapon was huge, I don’t think I could wield that thing, even with magic. I'd bet Momma could though.

The shorter minotaur bull was only a head shorter than the first. His royal get-up wasn’t as fancy, made of silver instead of gold. His weapons of choice, a pair of maces that looked like he forgot to clean the blood off them. Something told me these guys didn’t care much for swords.

Our carriage came to a stop and Intel jumped down from the roof to open the door for mom and Aunty Rainbow. As soon as they stepped off I joined them on the ground taking Momma’s left side while RD took up the right.

“So, the masters of Equestria’s pet city state come groveling before us,” the elder bull barked to his son in a baritone voice that was almost painfully deep. Both minotaurs let out a belly laugh at our expense.

What the hell are these guys on about? Momma and Aunty bristled at the comment, and I slowly moved to grab onto Burny, whom I'd lovingly strapped to my back.

“We should just kill them here and now, and take their ship, Father.”

Aunty shoved her muzzle into the king’s face. “Try it, buddy. I’ve been wanting to test out some new Arcane Wing moves on someone, and you look real tempting.”

To his credit, the king leaned forward a bit and leered at Rainbow Dash, no doubt from the heavy smell of shampoo wafting off of her. With one hand, he pulled that mountain of a weapon onto his shoulder. His son readied his own weapons and fell into a loose stance while Momma’s horn took on a slight but lethal glow. The king glanced at Rainbow’s gossamer wings with mockery in his eyes. “With those paltry things, Wonderbolt? No amount of magic would ever make those feeble things capable weapons.”

“I don’t need feathered wings to trounce you and your phallic hammer back across the border.” Aunty’s wings shimmered with an angry sheen of mana. I didn’t even need magical senses to tell that was death warmed over.

The younger royal bull snorted loudly and dug his hooves into the dirt, yet a short harsh glance from his father halted him from attacking. King Bull looked back at Rainbow while bearing his teeth and tightening the grip on his hammer. “I might be worried if you weren’t weighed down by all that fat.”

That’s not fat, those are eggs. At this point, I was totally lost, I didn’t have a clue at what was going on, but it looked like an intimidation contest to me. So I pulled Burny out and leveled it at the side of their stony castle. “Listen here, Walking Sirloin,” all eyes focused on me, “You back off or I’ll cook your asses and serve you up with some barbecue sauce!”

With a loving touch that put a feral smile on my face, I pulled the trigger on Burny and carved a stream of fire between me and the wall next to the door. I freaked a bit when I realized there was a guard standing between Burny and the wall, but Cow Mountain sidestepped the ribbon of fire before he was roasted.

Everyone stared down at me with a look that could melt a Clockwerk where it stood, but didn’t say a word. Sweat started rolling down my neck as King Bull studied me for a few seconds. In a blur of movement, his hammer slammed down upon the earth where the burning oil had started to char the grass around our hooves. He looked perplexed for a moment before pulled the faintly glowing hammerhead up to his eyes in a motion that forced Rainbow away from him.

The burning oil clung to his runed hammerhead, coating the weapon in a small fire. The glow of his runed hammer head faded, but the flames remained. “Ha! Magicless fire! So you changelings are cut from a different rug than the prancing princesses after all.” He gave off a warm hearted chuckle, prompting his son to resume a non-aggressive stance and put his weapons down. He clapped Aunty on the withers, laughing all the while. Rainbow joined in at the same time and slugged him in the shoulder.

“If all of your warriors are as respectable as her,” the king bull jabbed a finger at me as I tried to still look tough, “then I see a long future between us.” He slammed the head of his weapon into the ground to rub out and suppress the rest of the fire as he spoke in a curt yet warm tone. “I am Emperor Iron Fist the Eighth, and this is my heir, Crown Prince Cho’Gal. His mother named him,” he added with mild disdain. Cho’Gal glared at him with more hate than I think Velvet gave mother during the trial. Something I didn’t think possible.

Momma took the helm as I holstered Burny. “I am Queen Twilight Sparkle, here with my sister and co-ruler Queen Rainbow Dash.” Aunty snorted aggressively, but her aura on the hive mind told me she was loving every second of this. “And my heir, Guard Captain Aegis Altair.”

Iron Fist regarded me with what I could only assume was intrigue laced with confusion. These minotaurs were almost completely dead to my empathic senses, which always puts me on edge. “Is that right? I assumed all you royal bugs had cat eyes, yet she wears those of your common spawn.”

I was going to let Momma speak, but she mentally prodded me to do so. “I’ve been selected to become a royal, but I haven’t undergone my rebirth yet.”

“I see.” With casual grace, Iron Fist lifted his hammer back on his shoulder now that the fire was out and turned to strut up to the palace. Cho’Gal joined him with Momma leading us right behind. “Well come on then, if you want to talk trade, then join me in the Colosseum. The opening events are about to begin.”

Aunty and Mother shared a quick look before Aunty replied casually.

Mother finished smoothly. It felt like Aunty had expected Mother to cut in like that, and stopped talking the moment Mother started.

We continued down the narrow but tall arches throughout the palace. The sheer size of everything was astounding. The hive mind told me the minotaurs built it all without aid from pony magic. Apparently, we were walking straight to the opposite side of the castle. Iron Fist grabbed a haunch of meat off a servant’s cart and began some small talk about the power of his armies and some glories he won in battle or something. Personally I couldn’t get over the fact that these minotaurs built this… I’d say somepony took a bunch of spears, shoved them into the ground face up, and then looked at a contractor and said “build that”.

We kept walking for about fifteen minutes or so, going well past the palace and into the adjoining Colosseum. This place was not as impressive. Aside from one story tall outer walls, everything else was quarried out of the ground.

Eventually, our group finally reached the king’s personal balcony overlooking the Colosseum. Now, this place may have been nothing more than a glorified hole in the ground, but damn if it isn’t a big one. I looked around to see several thousand seats stretching out all around us with our ring-side view of the blood-soaked sands of the stage floor. A leather awning shielded us from the blazing sun above, not that we needed it right now thanks to the castle’s spires draping their shadows over the building. The stage floor itself was much longer than it was wide. I’m guessing that's for racing, but right now there was a huge battle about to take place.

I had to fly above the railing of the balcony to see that there were twenty minotaurs lined up right below us waiting for a mixed group of pony gladiators to run out of the arena’s side entrances to take up a position opposite of them. I could see this being a good fight if it was just earth ponies and pegasi, but a third of them were unicorns. How in the world were those cows going to go up against pony magic?

King Bull slammed his hammer down next to a bare boned throne. Literally, it was made of bones and tusks tied together to look like a chair. Cho’Gal leaned against the railing, forgoing a chair at all. The rest of us were given soft cushion lounge chairs. Something akin to what you’d find in a spa is the exact opposite of what I ever expected to ever see around here.

Since I was the lowest rank there, I waited for momma and Aunty to take their seats, gracing the emperor with appreciative remarks. “I have to say,” Mother purred teasingly as she settled into the soft pillows. “I half expected you give us seats like your own.”

Iron Fist laughed lightly. “I would normally,” he briefly studied my queens’ bellies, “but giving such seats to pregnant females is insulting.” He pointed at Rainbow Dash in particular. “You may not spawn your young like the rest of us, but the analogy is close enough to matter in my book.”

I could tell Aunty was mildly annoyed, more so at her predicament. Her eggs were probably ready to be laid, but she couldn’t do that until we were back on the ship. Yet she still managed to give a grateful nod.

“You are our honored guests, your majesties,” Cho'Gal replied evenly. “As we honor you, we expect it to be reciprocated.”

Iron Fist followed his son’s lead as he stood up. “Well said, Cho’Gal.” He swept a hand over the proceedings below. “Join me, my honored guests, in starting the reenactment of the Battle of the Rolling Plains.” He raised his Warhammer high into the air and yelled a bloodcurdling howl. I almost jump out of my skin when Prince Bull and my queens joined in the shouting. Wait, Prince Bull… Princabull! My short giggling was lost in the noise, and it was only Aunty flicking me with her tail in a chastising manner that derailed my thoughts.

That’s when I realize everyone was screaming except me, even the people in the stands. Not knowing what else to do, I started howling too at the top of my lungs for what felt like a minute. The combined force of the audience filled the massive arena with a hoof rattling roar.

My throat was getting sore, and I gotta say, I was feeling rather stupid with this random shouting. King Bull finally let up a minute later and sat back down, with the rest of us soon after. I guess that was the signal to start because the two groups in the arena started chopping away at each other with swords, maces, and spells galore. I didn’t get the fixation these guys have on killing, but even I can’t escape the thrill of combat.

I missed Mother and Aunty opening up negotiations, and only looked back at them when Iron Fist’s rumbling voice caught my ear. “So… you want mineral rights from my mines in the Dal’era region.” He glanced between my queens, no doubt gauging just how serious we were. I think despite how honest our hive had been with Equestria, our race’s reputation of duplicity preceded us.

Even with that history hanging over our collective heads, he continued speaking without any change in demeanor as a server came over with a whole platter of food for us. “I assume you are aware that my empire has only recently quelled the latest usurping warlord.” King Bull laughed darkly between bites. The disgust he had for his former warlord was as plain as day, empathic senses or not. My queens kept on gnawing on their food, waiting for him to finish. “My coffers are practically empty at this point. The last war was costly in both coin and warriors. The gold veins in those hills are the richest we’ve seen in four generations, and I need that gold.” He took a moment to take a large bite out of some roasted leg. “That being said, I find it hard to believe you’d come to me to buy the most expansive gold mines in existence right now, because I will tell you now.” His stern tone gave me slight shivers. “They will not come cheap, and I would need payment all upfront.”

Aunty started fidgeting with one of her right foreleg’s holes, while looking contemplative. She always gets like that when mother’s talking to her during a formal setting over the hive mind. Eventually, Aunty’s attention shifted back to King Bull. “We are not interested in the gold at all, but rather the other minerals and rare earths that we discovered after you graciously allowed our drones in to survey. We have a small list of goods we’re in need of. The biggest thing we’re asking for is Quadrinix that often forms around and above gold veins. I believe you throw that stuff out with the tailings.” Aunty levitated a small scroll over so the king could take it.

Where had I heard of Quadrinix before? I was about to get the hive mind to answer for me when the royal bulls scoffed at the request.

“Quadrinix?” Princabull joined in his father’s confusion as he leaned in to read the scroll along with the emperor. “You mean those weird red rocks that look like someone took a bunch of balls and attached them all together with sticks? That stuff is too brittle for construction or smithing when broken from its natural form. You’d be better off using shale.”

Oh now I remember! That’s the stuff that’s supposed to be the new alloying material that our metallurgists freaked out about last week. Not to mention Momma said it would allow a single egg to safely undergo multiple alchemical procedures. It would allow us to use more experimental strains with less risk if, and when, deformities start to form.

“I find their rather peculiar molecular shape rather striking,” Mother replied with an artistic hum. “The material is necessary for the advancement of the arts, and my scientists have found it could be an excellent addition to alchemy.”

Momma told me to never look too desperate for stuff during diplomacy, so I knew not to speak up when she left off the other uses we’d found for it.

The king said nothing for several bites. His face slow slid into a rather disturbing look at my queens. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to duel them, study them, or rut them. Damn it, I never noticed how much I relied on my empathic senses to know what somepony’s feeling.

“I’ve heard rumors of your alchemy,” he said at last, his expression shifting to neutral. “Some magic that you queens alone possess to alter your subjects.” He slammed his empty mug on the side of his throne, which summoned a server to refill it. “I could care less about such manipulative magic, since you only use it on yourselves.” He lazily looked between my queens before refocusing on the arena below. “Since what you ultimately do with this list of ore you’re requesting is of no concern of mine, I see no reason for me to refuse you, providing proper incentive. This list of yours is quite long, after all.”

“We are prepared to offer you an honorable exchange,” Mother commented diplomatically, “that will be well worth consideration, I assure you.”

Iron Fist grunted in amusement. “I still can’t believe you're asking for such useless materials. You’re essentially asking us to give you our trash, is that fair to say?” I overhear King Bull mention lazily. Aunty shrugged slightly while Momma nodded.

One mare’s trash is another mare’s treasure after all.

“Very well, but you’ll have to pay for shipping between the mines and to Equestrian border. You may be one half of the pony-changeling alliance with Equestria, but we cannot move so freely within the princesses’ borders. So unless you’re carrying one of the royal sister’s seals that we can...”

I figured that much myself. As far as I know, our freighters were all tied up with Equestrian shipping or going all the way out to Stripped Gear. There’s not even a railroad that crosses into the Empire.

“We are more than capable of handling the transfer after it reaches the bordertown of Trottingham.” Momma replied evenly. “As for our side of the bargain, we’re offering up our expertise as civic engineers.” Momma spoke with a calm confidence I’ve only seen repeated in Celestia and sometimes with Luna. She’s so controlled I can’t even get a good reading on her aura.

“You already got a water system in place around here,” Aunty added with mildly reckless enthusiasm before the cows could speak out. “We also heard how much you liked working toilets in your last visit to Canterlot, so we can offer up a hundred engineers to give your entire capital a working sewer system. We are also prepared to extend this service to other cities if the flow of resources continues after we’re through with the capital.”

King Bull tried to look unimpressed by the offer, but even I could see he was intrigued. No doubt Momma caught on to that. “It may not be as awe inspiring as a new warmachine or monument to your glory, but with the sewers in place, there will be fewer epidemics around here. And that means more healthy warriors to keep your warlords in line.”

Cho’Gal spat at the offer when his father failed to voice any objections quickly enough. I didn’t need empathic senses to tell he was a little miffed. “A hundred? Do not take us for fools, changelings,” he growled with a dangerous tone. “Our city is vast, our people numerous. You should have seen as much from your airship. A measly one hundred builders is an insult.”

Bah, it would take almost our whole hive to do it all ourselves. Lemme see what my two bits can buy. “I think you misunderstand us, your Graces,” Mother and Aunty looked at me questioningly, but they don’t move to stop me. The royal bulls look like they're on the verge of throwing the deal over the railing and down to the gladiator's tender mercy below. Oh boy this isn’t good. If I screwed this up, I could kiss my rebirth goodbye. I’m just glad my bladder was empty right now. Keep it together, Aegis. It’s only our hive’s prosperity and your future as a queen on the line here. Oh glob, I can feel their eyes boring into me. “Our hive simply doesn’t have the lingpower to do it all ourselves. Not to mention that if we did all the work, it would ultimately be detrimental to you.” King Bull’s glare softened into contemplation a little at that tidbit. “Our plan is to supervise and train a number of your laborers during construction. That way, when the work is complete, you can maintain the sewers yourselves with no further assistance from us.”

It was a gamble. I don’t actually know if we were planning to train anypony, but when neither Queen-Mother berated me over the Link, I guess my hunch was correct. King Bull sat there and stewed over it for a long while. Even Princabull calmed down to think about it.

The collective hive mind said these guys don’t care much for builders, not that you could tell from the giant freaking castle. But they hate disease, more so than most people. I think it’s more like a phobia. No warrior’s death for you, you caught Dysentery, much mad, so sad.

“We happen to have an abundance of slaves presently,” Iron Fist commented dryly. “Captives from that upstart warlord, Dreadful Star.” He suddenly shouted a satisfied warcry at a heifer in the arena besting a pair of unicorns by using her shield to deflect a spell back at the caster. The first unicorn was slammed into the side of the second.

At this point, the continuing deliberations fell into minute details. Both Momma and Aunty brushed my mind with praise and a sense that they could handle it from here. I tried to listen in, but with the polite dismissal my attention quickly slipped towards the arena below. I looked out at the fighting to see the numbers weren’t what they should be. I counted out that ten of the minotaurs were still standing while only two unicorns and three pegasi remained in the fight. One of the unicorns was so close to our balcony, I could hear his ragged breathing as one of the bulls charged head on with his mirrored tower shield raised.

With all of the other cows on the far side of the arena, I fully expected the unicorn to simply lift the charging bull in the air and toss him. The unicorn’s magic ripped columns of rock and dirt from the ground itself, trying to block or knock the minotaur off balance.

“Come on! Just lift him!” I yelled at the stupid sap. He ignored me as the bull careened through one earthen pillar, and expertly jinked right to avoid a second one, all without slowing down one bit. Finally the idiot launched a fireball at the freight train headed his way, but the spell just bounced, I kid you not, it freaking bounced off the shield like it was some damn rubber ball the nymphs play with. Is that why he didn’t try lifting the bull into the air?

I shook the thoughts away as the bull finally closed the distance and brought his meter long sword in a horizontal sweep. The unicorn shouted in defiance and pulled a bloody zweihander out from the dust. My heart was trying to beat its way out of my chest as the unicorn caught the swing head on with his blade.

I caught Iron Fist leaning forward in his throne to watch too. The unicorn looked like he had wanted to deflect the strike but acted too slow and instead was locked in place trying to take the full brunt of the bull’s strength. For what seemed like a minute, both guys tried to overpower the other. The raw power I could sense that the unicorn was pushing with his mana was something I thought only Mother could match.

The blades shifted so the tips were angled down to the ground and the hilts were up in the air. With the shift, the unicorn slowly moved backwards, presumably so he could break the sword-lock to renew the offensive, but the bull threw his shield at the unicorn before he could get too far. The almost meter long metal shield nearly clipped the unicorn’s horn. When that failed, the bull grabbed the hilt of the pony’s blade and ripped it out of his magic.

Before the stallion, or even I could comprehend what just happened, the minotaur closed in and cleaved both blades at the pony’s neck. Morbid fascination locked my eyes in place as the tips of the blades carved into the dirt with the swords stopping just short of giving the pony a bit too much off the top. Both combatants looked up at us, and I only realized they were actually looking at King Bull a second later.

Iron Fist grunted approvingly and gave a thumbs down. In one smooth motion, the bull pulled his blades away, leaving the pony unharmed. I didn’t think the big guy cared enough. The victor ran off to join his fellows in fighting the rest of the ponies while the unicorn walked out of the arena through one of the side exits that opened for him.

“I’d expect nothing less from my personal Guard.” I turn to see King Bull leering at Rainbow. She did an admirable job looking indifferent. “They are the best warriors you have ever seen, no?”

Aunty discarded a collection of ribs and practically squee’d with delight at the platter of bacon that had been brought in by the servants especially for her. She promptly absconded with the whole thing and started going at it like she hadn't eaten for days. Eggs cost calories after all. “I guess. Everypo – one mows that moft,” she finally remembered to swallow her food, “unicorns can’t pat their head and rub their belly at the same time. Outmaneuvering a unicorn is far easier than using brute force.”

I suppose that’s true except for dexterity savants like Miss Rarity, but she doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of raw magic power our hive does. Which… actually, is still weaker than the average unicorn, sans our queens and magus strains at least.

I could see that the battle was winding down as the last of the ponies surrendered, but not before dropping five more minotaurs to the dirt. Thankfully, only two of the gladiators were being taken off the field on stretchers. The crowd around me was whooping and hollering like they had a bit too much salt. Not that I would know what that feels like…

My ear twitched back as Cho’Gal spoke after guzzling half a tankard of red ale. “That’s the problem with you spell slingers. You can either be weak and agile or clumsy and strong. Only earth ponies show any real challenge, because they understand real strength,” the creep actually flexed at Aunty. Sexy rippling muscle aside, the guy had a point lost somewhere in all that testosterone.

Both Aunty and Twilight replied, but I didn’t really hear it. I sat back into my chair and thought about the earth ponies who had been fighting. A bunch of them were able to match the minotaurs’ hoofwork and strength, but I gotta say, having only their mouths to contend against two hands just wasn’t fair. Sure I bet even a unicorn could outrun these two legged cows all day long, but up close and personal?

I spied some choice bits of beef, of all things, by the buffet table that a servant had rolled in and took a piece to keep my stomach from disturbing me. I find it hard to believe that these minotaurs would actually serve beef, but I wasn’t about to complain since they also had some steak sauces on the table too. Revenge is a dish best served with A1.

I tried to drown out some of the fanfare out on the arena floor as they cleaned the place up for a race. Focus, Aegis, focus. Okay, where was I? Right, the fight. So, I gotta say up front, I’m actually pretty shocked how good these cows were while fighting on two legs. I mean, I know some pegasi and even a few of my siblings can do that for a little bit, but their balance rested mostly on their wings, and we changelings can only fight with a rifle while doing that. Even then the kickback is crazy. There’s just no way for our wings to compensate for a powder charge that’s never the same.

And you can straight up forget trying to land any hard punches while buzzing around unless you’re charging in. Last I checked, Granny’s spies saw ol’ Sticky Spit making a mass collection of void crystals, so we can expect them to counter our mages. I doubt she’s the only queen going through an arms race. The whole jungle is one big powder keg, and ever since Momma revealed we can produce love, the fuse was lit.

So.

What does any good changeling do in the face of a changing world? We adapt, we throw the other queens a curve ball they won’t see coming. I just wasn’t sure how to do that… until now.

Sure we can build better tech, but the other queens would have to be brain dead to ignore our best strength. We needed something new, and I think these talking steaks just gave me the answer. We do what we’ve always done. Observe outsides species, and change ourselves with any adaptation we see as useful. The only question now was how to convince Momma to go along with this particular plan.

Speaking of Mommy Dearest, she pinged me to drag me back to the present just in time to witness her vigorously shaking King Bull’s hand. “Then it’s a deal, Queen Twilight Sparkle. I’ll have the first shipment of ore and rare earths in Trottingham by the end of the week.”

“Excellent, I’ll inform my engineers to report to the castle immediately.” Mother’s aura brightened considerably. No doubt at the prospect of leaving the colosseum before any more blood sports started up.

As I expected. I knew Momma could find the right buttons to push to get what the hive needed, and Aunty was spot on with satisfying their need to speak warrior-to-warrior. As for me, it couldn’t be too hard to convince Momma to go along with my idea. Every new generation of queen has to be one step up in evolution, right?